Facebook Called Before Senate To Discuss Censorship, Legal Liability

This week, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to testify to the U.S. senate along with leaders from other tech giants. The executives are expected to be grilled over a host of issues including censorship, free speech and whether these companies can be held legally liable.

Most notably, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle will press tech leaders to defend Section 230 of the Communication Decency Act, a decades-old law that says websites cannot be held legally responsible for content posted on their platforms. Both president Trump and presidential candidate Joe Biden have come out in favor of revoking the law entirely — though of course, Facebook and the other companies want to protect themselves and keep it intact.

“Changing it is a significant decision. However, I believe Congress should update the law to make sure it’s working as intended,” Zuckerberg wrote in his prepared statements. “We support the ideas around transparency and industry collaboration that are being discussed in some of the current bipartisan proposals, and I look forward to a meaningful dialogue about how we might update the law to deal with the problems we face today.”

There are legitimate arguments to be made either way, but one thing is certain — the more often Facebook has to be held publicly accountable for its actions, the more likely it is that its policies will prioritize the needs of users.




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